Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Books/Chamber of Secrets/Chapter 17
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Chapter 17 of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: The Heir of Slytherin
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[edit] Synopsis
Harry finds himself at one end of a long chamber; at the other is a giant statue, probably Salazar Slytherin. The statue has an ancient, monkey-like face with a long thin beard, and is wearing sweeping robes. Lying on the floor is Ginny. His efforts to revive Ginny are interrupted by a tall, black-haired boy who identifies himself as Tom Riddle. Riddle, who is holding Harry's dropped wand, explains he is a memory, preserved in his diary for fifty years. He opened the Chamber of Secrets fifty years ago, intending to purge Muggle-borns and half-bloods from the school. However, when the school was to close due to the attacks and because Dumbledore (then the Transfiguration teacher) was keeping such a close watch on him, he halted the attacks and framed Hagrid. Not wanting to waste the years spent searching for the Chamber, he left behind a diary containing the memory of his sixteen-year-old self in hopes it would, one day, fall into the hands of an unsuspecting victim who would help finish his work.
Ginny had been writing in the diary all year. Riddle wrote back sympathetically, and Ginny confessed her fears, hopes, and feelings to him. She essentially poured some of her soul into him, which was exactly what he wanted. He gradually grew more powerful and eventually poured some of his soul back into her, possessing her and using her body to strangle the school roosters, write on the walls, and open the Chamber of Secrets. He tells Harry how Ginny told him Harry's entire history and how happy he was when Harry picked up the diary after Ginny became fearful and threw it away. He says he was disappointed when Ginny reclaimed it. Having seen Harry with the diary on Valentine's day, she was afraid it would reveal her secrets, and so she ransacked Harry's room to retrieve it. Tom forced Ginny into the Chamber for two purposes: first, to sap her remaining life force and come fully to life; and second, to lure Harry Potter there so he could meet him directly.
Tom wants to know how Harry, an ordinary baby wizard, could have defeated Lord Voldemort, the most powerful wizard of the age. Harry wonders why Tom cares. Riddle reveals he is, in fact, a half-blood. His mother named him Tom after his Muggle father and Marvolo after his wizard grandfather, a descendant of Salazar Slytherin. He scrambled his name to create a new one—Lord Voldemort, a name he knew people would fear when he became the most powerful wizard in the world. It was also a way to eliminate his Muggle father's name. Harry states Voldemort was not the most powerful wizard, Albus Dumbledore is. He says Dumbledore probably saw right through Tom when he was at school and is still stronger than Voldemort. When Tom says Dumbledore was driven from the school by Tom's memory, Harry retorts that Dumbledore may be closer than Tom realizes.
Fawkes, Dumbledore's Phoenix, suddenly appears in a burst of fire and drops the Sorting Hat at Harry's feet. It then perches on his shoulder. Tom is openly contemptuous: a songbird and an old hat. This is what Dumbledore sends to his allies? Tom again demands to know how Harry defeated Voldemort. Harry notices that Riddle's form is becoming more solid while Ginny's life force fades. Harry must act quickly if he is to defeat Riddle. Harry tells Riddle that by sacrificing her life for her son, his mother saved him from Voldemort and reduced him to an ineffectual remnant.
Mastering his rage, Tom agrees that indeed would be a powerful protection. He then summons the Monster—it is the Basilisk. Harry avoids its deadly gaze, as Fawkes leaves his shoulder. Harry is smashed against the wall by the snake's coil but is not bitten. He sees that Fawkes has blinded the Basilisk. Tom is still ordering the serpent to kill Harry, telling it to smell him. The thrashing snake has swept the Sorting Hat into Harry's arms. He puts it on, thinking "Help me!" The Hat constricts sharply and something hits him in the head. Taking it off, Harry finds a sword inside. As the Basilisk strikes, Harry impales it through the roof of its mouth and into its brain, killing it. But a single venomous fang pierces his arm.
Harry removes the fang, but it is too late. As the venom spreads, Harry dimly sees Fawkes land beside him. Riddle tells Harry he will soon be dead, even Dumbledore's bird knows; he is weeping. But both have forgotten that Phoenix tears heal wounds. Tom suddenly realizes this and attempts a killing curse. Before he can strike, Fawkes drops the diary into Harry's lap, and Harry stabs the diary with the fang. Tom Riddle is destroyed.
As Riddle vanishes, Ginny awakens. She gives a great gasp, begins crying, and says she wanted to tell Harry at breakfast that it was her that who was helping Riddle, that the diary was controlling her, but she could not speak in front of Percy. Now she is afraid of being expelled. Harry comforts her and takes her to where Ron has been clearing rocks. Ron wants to know where the sword and the bird came from, but Harry wants to explain later when Ginny is not around. Harry asks where Lockhart is. Ron points to the end of the tunnel. Lockhart has forgotten everything, even his own name.
Fawkes hovers near Harry, and Harry remembers that Phoenixes can lift amazingly heavy loads. Everyone holds on to each other and, with Harry holding Fawkes' tail, are flown from the Chamber to Moaning Myrtle's washroom. Myrtle seems mildly upset that Harry is still alive. She was going to offer him space in her toilet if he died. Fawkes flies to Professor McGonagall's office. Harry knocks on the door and opens it.
[edit] Analysis
This chapter is largely concerned with first, providing the hidden story behind the events that have occurred, and second, the action involved in defeating the adversary (here, Voldemort, as in the first book) and the Monster, and saving Ginny. As such, in the context of the book, there is not much analysis that can be done. The first part of the chapter is largely exposition, with Riddle explaining the back story; then, there is the brief battle with the Basilisk, and the return to the end of the tunnel where Ron waits. This leaves very little to analyze. However, it is perhaps useful to note that "a memory of Tom Riddle" can act independently and can take over another person's life force to return itself to life. This may prove unusual enough a characteristic to warrant special attention.
[edit] Questions
[edit] Review
- How does Harry see the Basilisk without dying?
[edit] Further Study
- Fawkes must see the the Basilisk's eyes, in order to puncture them. How does he do so without dying?
- How does Tom Riddle manage to see the Basilisk? He, too, will be vulnerable to its eyes. Or can the Basilisk switch that function on and off at will?
[edit] Greater Picture
Riddle repeatedly says that the diary contains a memory of Tom. What Harry is seeing and talking to is only a memory. However, in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Professor Dumbledore points out that Riddle's diary does far more than a memory should be able to - it can think and respond on its own, it can take over another person and make them do its bidding, and it can sap the life force from another person to create a body for itself. This strongly indicates that the diary is actually a Horcrux. Or rather, was a Horcrux; Harry has destroyed it.
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, it will be revealed that Harry has lucked into one of the very few techniques that will destroy a Horcrux: Basilisk venom. In that book, it is revealed that a Horcrux will act to keep its physical container intact, to the full extent of ordinary magic; in order to destroy a Horcrux, its physical container must be damaged beyond the ability of ordinary magic. Also in that chapter, it will be revealed that the only known cure for Basilisk venom is Phoenix tears, which, due to the extreme rarity of Phoenixes, are certainly outside the realm of ordinary magic.
This of course leads to an apparent problem: there is actually a phoenix in close proximity shortly before Harry stabs the diary. Could not the diary, making use of more ordinary magic similar to the Accio charm, summon some of Fawkes' tears to itself? Possibly it could, but the author has stated, in an interview given after the publication of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, that she had very carefully distanced the phoenix before the death blow. And looking at the sequence of events, we see that Riddle had, in fact, attempted to Curse Fawkes, driving him away and presumably out of range, before Harry stabbed the diary.
There are a few other useful items that are mentioned in passing in this chapter. Thinking Harry will shortly be dead, Riddle mentions his grandfather's name, Marvolo, something that we will learn much later Voldemort had been taking some pains to conceal. This will not be useful to Harry, though Dumbledore, who also knows it, uses it to unearth one of the Horcruxes: given the approximate age, and the name Marvolo which evidently is not common in the Wizarding world, plus the name Riddle associated with a Wizard-caused death in Tom's youth, Dumbledore is able to locate Tom's mother's home and retrieve a Horcrux hidden there. Tom also mentions what has likely become his greatest shame in the intervening fifty years: that despite being the last heir of Slytherin, Tom is descended from a Muggle, and so is one of the very half-bloods that he despises. Harry is able to cause some dissension in the ranks of a group of Death Eaters that he is facing in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, before the Battle in the Ministry, by mentioning that to them.
